Cairo named “World’s Most 24-hour City” in New Study by Badoo.com

London livelier than New York, Paris and Rome but Cairo named “world’s most 24-hour city”: study

New York “humiliated” – ranks 32nd

London ranks 17th, Paris 18th

Malaga named Europe’s most 24-hour city

Madrid “Europe’s most nocturnal capital”

The Big Mango (Cairo) makes the Big Apple look like the Big Sleep

Ranking of world’s most nocturnal cities comes from analysing 120 million online interactions

New York is famed as “the city that never sleeps” but London, according to a new global study, sleeps even less, as do over 30 other cities across the world.

None sleep less than Cairo, capital of Egypt, which is today named the “world’s most 24-hour” city by the researchers behind a global study of online chatting and flirting. But New York ranks a humiliating 32nd, behind London (17th), Paris (18th), Rome (27th) and an embarrassingly long list of other cities.

The first global ranking of the world’s “most 24-hour” – as in, most nocturnal – cities, comes from analysing 120 million online chats and flirts made over two months on Badoo (www.badoo.com), the world’s largest social network for meeting new people, with 122 million users across 180 countries.

Malaga, on Spain’s Costa del Sol, where many Brits are now spending their summer holidays, is named Europe’s most 24-hour city, and fourth globally.

Spanish cities comprise six of the world’s 10 most nocturnal cities.

Madrid (6th globally) is Europe’s most 24-hour capital and London its sixth.

Viewed another way, London is second only to Brussels as northern Europe’s most 24-hour city.

Badoo’s study finds that online chatting and flirting in Cairo peak at 12.45 pm, 75 minutes later than in London and three hours later than in New York.

“Our figures suggest that New Yorkers are climbing into bed at around the time that Cairo residents are preparing to go out”, says Lloyd Price, Badoo’s Director of Marketing.

The city that once defined urban buzz now ranks in the global buzz stakes one place behind Moscow and 15 behind London, to which it sometimes compares itself.

How have the mighty fallen? “This will confirm the fears of those who say that New York has grown sterile and sleepy”, says Price.

What’s more, it’s not just the Big Mango (Cairo) that has made the Big Apple look like the Big Sleep. It’s also Montevideo, Uruguay, second in the global rankings; and Beirut in Lebanon in third.

Yes, these are all far-flung cities where hotter climates favour nocturnal living but almost every European capital also makes New York look like Snoozeville.

Badoo’s rankings are based on its own “Nocturnal Index” for each city. This blends measurement of peak times for chatting and flirting with a “Night/Day Ratio”, comparing online activity levels by night and by day.

London and Cairo, like almost all the cities in Badoo’s world top 20 register more online activity at night – defined as 7pm to 7am – than by day. New York is among cities that register the opposite.

No-one, meanwhile, could accuse Cairo, a seething city of some 17 million, of being sterile or sleepy. Cairo residents (“Cairenes”) go out until one or two am, then have something to eat or hit an Internet café and use social networking sites to check who’s around.

There’s a rush-hour between two and four am, when most of the night-clubs and many bars close.

But Cairo’s nocturnal lifestyle is not just a matter of the young clubbing the night away. At midnight in many a brightly lit Cairo neighbourhood, the streets buzz with friends sharing a shisha [syrupy tobacco] at a local café, or, indeed, families and children out shopping, playing or strolling.

While Cairo can pride itself on its nocturnal buzz, especially in areas like Zamalek, known for its nightlife, Cairo’s status as the true city that never sleeps is not entirely a cause for celebration.

The fact is that many Cairenes get less sleep than they need.

“Studies estimate that some five million people in Cairo – almost a third of the population – suffer from a sleeping disorder”, says Jailan Zayan, a Cairo journalist and author of the book Egypt – Culture Smart!: The Essential Guide to Customs and Culture. “Sleep problems result from factors including stress, unemployment and Cairo s notorious noise levels.”

In fact, the city’s first sleep clinic was set up two years ago to treat such problems.

If many Cairo residents need to get more sleep, another conclusion from Badoo’s study is that the Big Apple needs to rethink its image as the city that never sleeps.

“New York has become so gentrified and Disneyfied and the community boards have gained so much power that nightlife has gotten the shaft in favour of quieter neighborhoods that are [felt to be] more amenable to rich residents and tourists”, says Michael Musto, high-profile columnist on Village Voice, the city’s influential weekly newspaper.

"Of course, the irony is that most rich people and tourists would love nightlife if they got a taste of it."

So, has the time come for New York to get real, wake up and rebrand? From “the Big Apple” to “the Big Sleep” perhaps? Or, maybe, “New York, the city that barely wakes”? No, it doesn’t quite have the same ring.

WORLD’S 10 MOST NOCTURNAL CITIES

Rank

City

Peak Time (pm)

“Nocturnal Index”

1.

Cairo (Egypt)

12.45

2.40

2.

Montevideo (Uruguay)

10.75

2.40

3.

Beirut (Lebanon)

12.30

2.33

4.

Malaga (Spain)

11.30

2.32

5.

Zaragoza (Spain)

11.15

2.30

6.=

Madrid (Spain)

11.30

2.28

6.=

Barcelona (Spain)

11.30

2.28

6.=

Valencia (Spain)

11.30

2.28

9.

Seville (Spain)

12.15

2.25

10.

Buenos Aires (Argentina)

10.45

2.25

• The “Nocturnal Index” for each city is based on both its “Peak Time” for chatting and flirting and its “Night/Day Ratio”, comparing activity levels by day and night. “Cairo ranks above Montevideo due to having a later “Peak Time”.